Unsurprising

Cutting access to contraceptives and good sex education leads to more unintended pregnancies - wow, what a shocker! I guess it takes a scientific study for the media to be able to report that fact, but really, who's surprised? The news here should be that conservatives are being disingenuous in their cries for reduced teen pregnancy so long as they propose solutions that have the opposite effect.

Here's some sanity:

"The most powerful and least divisive way to decrease abortion is to reduce unintended pregnancy," said Sarah Brown, director of the nonpartisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. "If we can make progress reducing unintended pregnancy, we can make enormous progress reducing abortion."

This is where I differ with those who say that the Catholic Church's pro-life stance is enviably consistent. Empirically speaking, it just doesn't make sense to be anti-abortion, anti-condom and anti teen motherhood. The combination of moral standings leads to some pretty tricky situations, especially when the culture you promote is not known for its focus on female empowerment. Inevitably, the ideological stew that is conservatism's approach to sex results in more abortions than we'd have without it.